CARTOGRAPHY OF THE DANCE. SEGREGATION AND LIFESTYLE AT THE MARGINS OF THE CITY

Abstract

This article examines how a group of break-dancers in Maré, a favela (shanty town) in Rio de Janeiro, has succeeded in severing the dynamics of segregation in a territory where armed conflicts between drug trafficking gangs and the aggressive behaviour by the police impose heavy constraints on the free movement of its residents. Based on ethnographic research, I describe how these young people employ hip-hop culture to expand the urban experience and contest the mechanisms of confinement that are intended to keep them isolated and anonymous in urban outskirts. By becoming renowned dancers in and out of the Maré, they use performance as a means to ascend to a valued existence, creating positive identities that subvert their place in the social hierarchy.

Key words:
Segregation; Youth; Shanty town; Hip-hop; Cartography